George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901[1] – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, today Raft is mostly known for his gangster roles in the original Scarface (1932), Each Dawn I Die (1939), and Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot, as a dancer in Bolero (1934), and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940).[2]

Raft said he never regarded himself as an actor. "I wanted to be me", he said.[3]

George Raft was born in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, to a Catholic family of German descent,[4] the son of Eva (née Glockner), a German immigrant, and Conrad Ranft, who was born in Massachusetts to German immigrant parents.[5] His parents were married on November 17, 1895, in Manhattan. George's elder sister, Eva, known as "Katie", was born on April 18, 1896.

Some obituaries cited Raft's year of birth as 1895, which the actor stated was correct on television in 1980 on The Mike Douglas Show.[6] He stated that he was born on September 26, 1895, whereupon Douglas stated that Raft would turn 85 the upcoming September; he is supposedly recorded in the New York City Birth Index as having been born on September 26, 1901, in Manhattan as "George Rauft" (although "Rauft" is likely a mistranscription of "Ranft");[7] the 1900 census for New York City lists his elder sister, Katie, as his parents' only child, with two children born and only one living.[8] On the 1910 census, he is listed as being eight years old.[5][non-primary source needed][9] A boyhood friend of gangsters Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel, and later a "wheel man" for the mob, Raft acknowledged having narrowly avoided a life of crime.[10]

Raft grew up on 41st Street and worked as an errand boy and a fishwrapper after school. His parents sent him to live at his grandparents' house on 164th Street. He left school at the age of 12, and left home aged 13. He worked as an apprentice electrician for a year, then boxed professionally for two years. As "Dutch Rauft", he had 14 bouts: nine victories, three defeats and two draws.[11] In 1911, he was a minor league baseball player for Springfield of the Eastern League, as a utility outfielder with pitching aspirations. However, his batting was poor and he was dropped.[12][13] "I was just trying to find something that I liked that would make me a living", said Raft later. "I saw guys fighting, so I fought. I saw guys playing ball, so I played ball. Then I saw guys dancing... and getting paid for it!"[11]

Raft had been taught how to dance by his mother and had danced at outdoor amusement parks and carnivals with his parents.[14] Following his baseball career, he began working as a taxi dancer in the poorer sections of New York. At first he struggled financially, but then he won a Charleston competition and was launched professionally.

He started doing exhibition dances in the afternoon at Healy's, Murray's, Rectors and Churchills in New York.[15] He then started working in New York City nightclubs, often in the same venues as Rudolph Valentino before Valentino became a movie actor.[16]

Raft toured with his dancing and helped popularise the tango in Paris, Vienna, Rome, London and New York.[11] He had a great success as a dancer in London in 1926, and the Duke of Windsor was "an ardent fan and supporter."[17]Fred Astaire, in his autobiography Steps in Time (1959), says Raft was a lightning-fast dancer and did "the fastest Charleston I ever saw."[18]

Raft became part of the stage act of flamboyant speakeasy and night club hostess Texas Guinan at the 300 Club (also producing some of her shows). His success led him to Broadway, where he again worked as a dancer.[11] His stage performances included The City Chap (1925) (with music by Jerome Kern), Gay Paree, Madhattan, Palm Beach Nights (also known as No Foolin') and Padlocks of 1927 (1927). He later made a semiautobiographical film called Broadway (1942) about this period, in which he plays himself.

He also worked on the Paramount Publix circuit, performing in stage shows that were presented before movies.

Owney Madden told him he ought to be in movies, and Raft decided to try it after being threatened by the husband of a woman he had been seeing.[11][19] In 1927, Raft relocated to Hollywood. It took him a while to establish himself, and he danced in clubs to pay the bills.[11]

In October 1928, he appeared in a stage show presented by Texas Guinan. The Los Angeles Times said Raft "scores a tremendous individual hit."[20]

His screen debut was in Queen of the Night Clubs (1929), starring Guinan, who insisted Raft have a small role. The film is lost now, but it was reported that Raft's scenes were cut.[21] However, he appeared in stage shows supporting the film. One reviewer called him "a clever dancer".[22]

Raft's big break came when cast as the second lead, alongside Paul Muni as Tony Camonte, in Scarface (1932), directed by Howard Hawks. He plays second-in-command Guino Rinaldo, who falls in love with Camonte's sister and is murdered by him. Raft's performance was notable for his character frequently flipping a coin (a nickel) during scenes, which became an iconic trope in gangster films. (Many people later claimed credit for this idea, including Raft and Hawks.) The film was shot in September 1931, but not released by United Artists until the following year. It was a landmark hit, and Raft garnered a lot of attention; audience adulation made a star of him.

"That was the big one", he said. "People remembered me. I was getting real fan mail – by the bushel basket – and even a dumb kid from 10th Avenue could figure out how to translate that into money."[11]

Raft signed a contract with Paramount in February 1932.[23] They put him in a supporting role for Madame Racketeer (1932) and he was announced for Ladies of the Big House with Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond.[24]

When Scarface was released, public response was so strong that Raft was given the lead in a film based on a story by Louis Bromfeld, originally called Number 55[25] then changed to Night After Night (1932).[26] When the studio adamantly refused to hire Texas Guinan—upon whom one of the movie's characters was based—because of her age, Raft advocated for another friend, Mae West, to be cast in a supporting role in his first film as leading man. Almost half a century later, Raft and West would die within two days of each other and their corpses would be momentarily placed together on stretchers in a hallway of the same morgue.

He was one of several Paramount stars who appeared in the episodic comedy/drama If I Had a Million (1932), playing a forger hiding from police, suddenly given a million dollars with no place to cash the check. Actors who also played the lead in other sections of the picture included Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields and Charles Laughton, so Raft was in extremely prestigious company. He starred in Under-Cover Man (1932) and was announced for Bodyguard, which was never made.[27]

"It's not that I mind being the guy on the wrong side of the law", he said. "But I won't take a role that's pure heel. The character has to have some ray of warmth, some redeeming quality – or it just isn't real."[11]

The film performed poorly at the box office and was seen to have hurt La Rue's career.[15] Raft was taken off suspension in April 1933.[30] He returned to Hollywood to make Midnight Club (1933), set in London.

He was meant to be in It’s a Pleasure to Lose, based on the life of Nick the Greek, but instead made Bolero (1934), where Raft played a dancer opposite Carole Lombard. Raft refused to do the film until it was rewritten; the studio suspended him for a time but he eventually did it and the resulting movie was a big hit.[15][32] The New York Times said "Raft is a vivid and pictorially interesting type, rather than an actor in the technical sense, and consequently he proves unequal to the full implications of the fame-hungry dancer. The exterior attractiveness which Mr. Raft brings to the rôle gives ‘Bolero’ considerable color, nevertheless."[33]

In March 1934 Raft was suspended a second time for refusing the male lead in Mae West's It Ain't No Sin (later Belle of the Nineties.) because his part was subordinate to West's.[34][35] In May Raft signed a new contract with Paramount, to reflect his star status.[36]

Raft went into The Trumpet Blows (1934), playing a matador (an attempt to invoke Valentino's Blood and Sand); for a time he was promoted as a "second Valentino".[37] Raft walked out on the film unhappy with his role, but later came back after some rewrites were done. The film was a box office disappointment.[38]

Raft followed it with Limehouse Blues (1934; with Anna May Wong). In February 1934 Raft admitted to having been involved in three fights during his career as a dancer and actor, including one where he hit the producer of Bolero.[39] August 1934 Raft was involved in a brawl at the Hollywood Brown Derby.[40]

Raft was meant to team with Lombard for a third time in The Princess Comes Across (1936) but refused to make it as he was unhappy with the choice of cameraman. He was replaced by Fred MacMurray and was suspended again in February 1936.[43]

Raft was meant to make You and Me, the directorial debut of Norman Krasna, but refused to work for a first-time director.[44] Raft was put on suspension in November 1936 and $24,000 of his salary was withheld.[45]

Raft was offered a part opposite the studio's biggest male star, Gary Cooper, in Souls at Sea (1937) directed by Henry Hathaway. Raft originally turned it down as his character was a coward and he left Paramount and his $4000 a week contract in November 1936. Sam Goldwyn wanted Raft for the film version of Dead End and Universal, David O. Selznick and 20th Century Fox were keen on using Raft; Lloyd Nolan was announced as Raft's replacement in Souls at Sea.[46] However Raft agreed to return to Paramount and the film when his part was rewritten to be more sympathetic.[47]

Paramount wanted Raft to appear in St Louis Blues but he refused and was replaced by Lloyd Nolan.[51] "Raft is Hollywood's authority on walk outs", wrote one columnist.[38] He was suspended, then allowed to do a comedy, The Lady's from Kentucky (1939). In January 1939 he refused to make The Magnificent Fraud and was again replaced by Lloyd Nolan. Raft's contract was meant to go until February of that year but they decided to end it early.[23]

He was meant to be in Star of Africa but the film was not made.[56] He was also meant to make The Dealer's Name was George from a story by Ketti Frings but turned down the movie; it was revived in 1945 as a possible Humphrey Bogart movie but was ultimately never made.[57]

Raft wanted to appear in a film version of the musical Broadway (1942), made at Universal. Jack Warner refused to loan him out so Raft spent eight months on suspension without pay. They could only do this while making movies that Raft turned down; eventually Warners ran out of movies and they would have to go back to paying him. They let him make Broadway.[64]
Raft said he had to pay $27,500 out of his own pocket and negotiate so that Warners could borrow Robert Cummings from Universal for another film. The resulting film was a mild box office success.[65]
Raft was reported to have turned down Bogart's role in Casablanca (1942), although according to some Warner Bros. memos, this story is apocryphal. Raft was discussed as a possibility for the lead at one stage, but never offered it.[66]

Raft was one of many Warners names who appeared in Stage Door Canteen (1943). He was reportedly working on a play based on his life with W.R. Burnett called Hell's Kitchen.[67] He finally returned to filming at Warners with the espionage thriller Background to Danger (1943), a film intended to capitalize on the success of Casablanca (Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre were in support – Raft and Lorre got into a fistfight on set.[3]). In November 1942, Raft bought himself out of his Warners contract in order to do Hell's Kitchen on stage.[68] He ended up never doing the play on stage.[citation needed]

Raft's career as a freelance actor initially began well. He toured the US, England and Africa, performing for the troops.[69] He was offered the lead in Double Indemnity (1944) by Billy Wilder but turned it down. "We knew then that we'd have a good picture", said Wilder later.[70] (Raft later admitted "I wasn't very intelligent then."[3])

Raft's first film after leaving Warners was Follow the Boys (1944), a musical at Universal, which featured a number of Universal's stars in a guest spots and Raft in the lead. It achieved a healthy gross. 20th Century Fox hired him to a contract so he could appear in a musical, Nob Hill (1945), replacing Fred MacMurray;[71] directed by Hathaway, it was a huge hit.[citation needed]

In 1946, Raft earned a reported $108,000 for the year.[74] Raft announced he had created his own production company, Star Films, with Sam Bischoff as president, and would make three films in two years for $3.5 million.[75] He and Marin returned to RKO to make the film noir Nocturne (1946), produced by Joan Harrison which was popular. Raft's next three films were all directed by Marin: Christmas Eve (1947), at United Artists for Bogeus, a box office disappointment; Intrigue (1947) at United Artists for Star Films; Race Street (1948) at RKO. In June 1947 Raft received some bad publicity when his friend Bugsy Siegel was murdered.[76]

Star Film's second movie was a story of the French Foreign Legion, Outpost in Morocco (1949), partly shot on location in Africa. The film was a box office disappointment.[77] He followed this with a series of thrillers: Johnny Allegro (1949), directed by Ted Tetzlaff for Columbia; Red Light (1949), by Roy del Ruth for United Artists; and A Dangerous Profession (1949), by Tetzlaff for RKO. None of these performed particularly strongly at the box office, and Raft's standing as a box office attraction had been damaged. The Johnny Allegro shoot went on for so long that Raft missed out on the chance to star in The Big Steal (1949); he was replaced by Robert Mitchum.[78]

Raft went to England to make I'll Get You for This, shot in 1950 but not released for another year. In the summer of 1951, Raft had the title role in the radio adventure series Rocky Jordan. He played "the owner of a cabaret in Cairo whose life is steeped in intrigue." It only lasted a few months.[79]

Raft appeared in two low budget thrillers, Escape Route (1952), shot in England with Sally Gray, and Loan Shark (1952). Both were released through Lippert Pictures. He starred in a syndicated TV series I'm the Law (1953) which ran one season.[79]The Man from Cairo (1953), also for Lippert and shot in Europe and Africa, was the last film in which Raft had top billing. He resumed his dancing career, doing an exhibit in Las Vegas. "As far as films are concerned, I'm dead", he said. "Nobody has been breaking their necks trying-to hire me."[80] He tried to persuade Darryl Zanuck to remake The Honor System. "I want to play heavies again", he said. "I think I made a mistake going straight."[81]

In 1955 Raft was offered a 2% share in the Flamingo Hotel if he acted as entertainment director. Raft agreed but was rejected for a gaming licence because of his history of working at clubs owned by crime figures such as Owney Madden. He appealed and managed to get the decision overturned and went to work at the hotel negotiating their show business deals.[11] He later worked as a greeter at the Capri Casino in Havana, Cuba, where he was a part owner. This ended when Fidel Castro took over the country and stamped out the casinos. (Raft was in Havana the night the revolutionaries arrived.)[69][11][69]

In 1965 Raft was convicted of income tax evasion. He pled guilty to one count and was fined $2,500. The following year he testified in front of a New York grand jury about Mafia financial transactions.[12]

Raft received an offer from Andy Neatrour to work as a host and part owner of a gambling club in London, the Colony Club. Raft went there in 1966.[82] While in there he had parts in several movies, including a cameo in 1967's James Bond spoof Casino Royale, a French film with Jean GabinThe Upper Hand (1966) and Five Golden Dragons (1967). The club was a success. However, after he went to the US for a short holiday he was banned from re-entering London in 1967 as an "undesirable".[12]

In the early 1970s, Raft appeared in a now-famous Alka Seltzer television commercial playing the role of a prison inmate. He worked as a goodwill ambassador for the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas.[12] He had to sell his house and move into an apartment in Century City.[11]

Raft married Grace Mulrooney (1902-1970) in 1923[84], long before his stardom. The pair separated soon thereafter, but the devoutly Catholic Mulrooney refused to grant a divorce, and Raft remained married to her, and continued to support her, until her death in 1970. A romantic figure in Hollywood, Raft had love affairs with Betty Grable, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Carole Lombard and Mae West. He stated publicly that he wanted to marry Norma Shearer, with whom he had a long romance, but his wife's refusal to allow a divorce eventually caused Shearer to end the affair.[10][85]

When James Cagney became president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1942 for a two-year term, he took a role in the guild's fight against the Mafia, which had taken an active interest in the movie industry. Cagney's wife, Billie, once received a phone call telling her that Cagney was dead.[86] Cagney alleged that, having failed to scare him and the guild off, they sent a hit man to kill him by dropping a heavy light onto his head. On hearing about the rumor of the hit, George Raft made a call, and the hit was supposedly cancelled.[86][87]

Raft died from leukemia at the age of 79 in Los Angeles, on November 24, 1980. Two days earlier, Mae West had died, and the two stretchers holding the stars' bodies were briefly alongside one other in the hallway of the mortuary for a coincidental silent reunion almost half a century after their first film together.[citation needed]

Raft left behind no will. His estate consisted of a $10,000 insurance policy and some furniture. In the last years of his life he had mainly lived on $800 a month, a combination of social security and his pension.[93] He was interred in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. Raft's personal effects, wardrobe, etc., were sold by means of a simple classified advertisement, listing the lot for $800 in Hemming's Motor News in the fall of 1981.[citation needed]

^RAFT IS ORGANIZING OWN MOVIE STUDIOS: Actor and Sam Bischoff Will Produce as Star Films, Inc. --James Mason in Deal Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.. New York Times (1923–Current file) [New York, NY], September 13, 1946, pg. 5.